Nine local, regional, and international artists will show commissioned light-art works juxtaposed against the backdrop of Georgetown’s historic environs during the fourth edition of the Georgetown GLOW exhibition in Georgetown. Works will be lit from 5 pm – 10 pm nightly from Friday, Dec. 8 – Sunday, Jan. 7, with a free Curator’s Audio Tour set to music that will be available on the Georgetown GLOW website. In addition to the light works, GLOW 2017 programming includes a Silent Disco, GLOW All Night merchant shopping night, and Book Hill Winter Wonderland event.

The signature winter event, organized by the Georgetown Business Improvement District (BID), was awarded a Public Art Building Communities Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant enabled Georgetown GLOW to grow in both scope and size.

“The installations for the 2017 edition of Georgetown GLOW exude a vivid brightness both in aesthetics and content,” said Deirdre Ehlen MacWilliams, Georgetown GLOW Curator. “From chromatic rings to interactive landscapes, the works are truly beautiful while being contemplative. As with previous iterations of GLOW, we ask the viewer to interact, connect and play with the artwork in thoughtful ways. This year, we also ask viewers to think about the meaning behind the works and how they are able to temporarily transform our surroundings. We do hope that GLOW brings a renewed light to all during the holiday season.”

“With the generous support of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and our sponsors, this year the BID is able to showcase the thought-provoking and beautiful works of even more artists,” said Nancy Miyahira, Vice President and Marketing Director for the Georgetown BID. “We hope that the artists’ works at this year’s Georgetown GLOW inspire joy and connectivity with our communities, and each other, during this festive season.”

In addition to the month-long exhibition, the Georgetown BID is hosting:

Throughout the entire holiday season, Georgetown’s holiday décor and lights make it one of the city’s most festive neighborhoods. As attendees tour the public art works, they are also encouraged to take a self-guided tour of the uniquely decorated merchant windows in the sixth annual Holiday Window Competition, in which Georgetown’s small businesses square off in a friendly competition to win top holiday decor honors. Beginning December 1, visitors vote for their favorite store window by “liking” its photo in an album on Georgetown’s official Facebook page. The winner is crowned on January 1.

Aqueous, Jen Lewin, New York City
Location: Georgetown Waterfront Park (K Street at Wisconsin Avenue)Aqueous is an interactive, walkable landscape of meandering pathways of light. During the day, the dichroic surface of Aqueous mirrors the sky and the surrounding physical landscape. By night, Aqueous will glow in full illuminated interactivity, engaging large groups in collaborative play. (Photo credit: Galen Oakes)

Courtesy of GLOW.

Horizontal Interference, Joachim Slugocki and Katarzyna Malejka, Poland
Location: Washington Harbour (3000 K St NW)Horizontal Interference is formed by a colorful cord structure which connects trees and light poles in a simple manner. The extraordinary architecture of wires, which in itself is beautiful at daylight, turns into a spectacular beauty at nightfall. The stretched UV tape soaks up the night. Using existing architecture, this brings a renewed sense of our surroundings.

Courtesy of GLOW.

Open Lounge, Géraud Périole in collaboration with Light Art Collection and Amsterdam Light Festival, Bordeaux, France
Location: Cady’s Alley/Georgetown Design District (Just below M Street between 33rd & 34th Streets)Open Lounge is like magic; this piece allows us to imagine we are in the ballroom of a palace, with the starry sky as our ceiling. Each of the 20 chandeliers is handcrafted and made of acrylic, plastic and rope.

Photo courtesy: Vikas Patil & Santosh Gujar.

Bands of Friendship, Vikas Patil & Santosh Gujar in collaboration with Light Art Collection and Amsterdam Light Festival, India
Location: Dean & DeLuca Plaza (3276 M St NW)Bands of Friendship symbolizes endless friendship, and has been positioned in such a way that visitors may look at the bands from different angles with changing meanings from every perspective. The nine rings—inspired by Indian color schematics—constantly change their color scheme. (Photo courtesy: Vikas Patil & Santosh Gujar)

Courtesy of GLOW.

Light Cloud, Ted Bazydlo & Brandon Newcomer, Washington, DC
Location: HOK & Chaia Courtyard (next to 3223 Grace St NW)Light Cloud is a digitally fabricated dynamic sculpture, responding to the surrounding environment and local activity. During inactive periods, the luminous body remains in stasis, displaying a glow of white ambient light. As people gather within the space, the sculpture activates, causing a reaction of variable lighting perceivable to those nearby.

Photo credit: Janus van den Eijnden.

My Light Is Your Light, alaa minawi in collaboration with Light Art Collection and Amsterdam Light Festival, Beirut, Lebanon
Location: Grace Church (1041 Wisconsin Ave NW)My Light is Your Light is a sculpture made of neon for the displaced in a city known for being welcoming and tolerant. The group sculpture exudes sadness, the figures’ heads bent and shoulders hunched over. But there is also an unmistaken optimism and borderless confidence in the future about them. The optimism is displayed in the youngest child who stands upright while the others are bent over. (Photo credit: Janus van den Eijnden)

Courtesy of GLOW.

GLOW Structural Remix, Robin Bell, Washington, DC
Location: Old Georgetown Theater (1351 Wisconsin Ave NW)
Robin Bell’s 15-minute looped video is based on the colors of winter and the dynamism of GLOW 2017 installations. The site-specific projection will interact with the building and—through design—harken the activities of this once bustling theater through historic imagery. The artwork will thread colors and shapes throughout to reflect the bright and warm energy that is found in Georgetown during the holidays.

Courtesy of GLOW.

The Neighbors, OmbréLumen – Arthur Gallice & Herve Orgeas, Shanghai and Houston
Location: Book Hill – 1500-1600 blocks of Wisconsin Ave (In front of Patisserie Poupon, Illusions of Georgetown, Signature, & Georgetown Lutheran Church)The Neighbors is an installation that consists of four figures made of LED bent wires, which is creating a clan of glowing people along Wisconsin Avenue. It is an homage to the connectivity that is part of the fiber of Georgetown through the lens of contemporary light art. The Neighbors is the result of a spontaneous calligraphic brushstroke; a long, simple stroke that, in its totality, portrays people. The figures do not have a predetermined identity. They are your neighbors, your friends. The figures can be anyone the viewer wants them to be, and that is what makes them even more attractive and relatable. Everyone is connected to them. They are the medium upon which people can project and experiment with their own identities.

Courtesy of GLOW.

LSM presents: Quayola, Casey Reas & Sara Ludy, Washington, DC
Location: 3333 M St NW
LSM is presenting three artists’ video works as projections through their atrium—Strata by London-based Quayola; Still Life by L.A.-based Casey Reas; and Rainbow Glass by California-based Sara Ludy. Original masterpieces and collections become raw canvas in Quayola’s work, as he anchors a video-based exploration in a conversation about archives, collage, intellectual property and the appreciation of an object. In Still Life, each work is a simulated “still life”: a composition deconstructing a Platonic solid, composed of and presented as information. Rainbow Glass is a seamlessly looped video created with a reflective and translucent aesthetic quality that refers to stained glass. It is a part of the series Glass which primarily explores surface and architecture, touching on depth, project, and landscape, themes from Ludy’s recent series Clouds.

Philips Color Kinetics
Location: The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown (3100 South St) and the C&O Canal Bridge at Georgetown Park
Philips Color Kinetics—celebrating its 20th anniversary—will be lighting the historic smokestack at The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown and the C&O Canal bridge at Georgetown Park, using a staggered installation of its ColorGraze MX 10×60 lighting fixture for the latter. Installed inside the bridge structure, on the edge of the steel work, the fixtures will create dramatic effects, contrasting the interior and exterior in a unique and dynamic fashion. Used for exterior lighting, Philips Color Kinetics LED lighting systems are able to withstand harsh weather, urban vibration and other environmental factors to bring new, sustainable impact and interest to a community or skyline with bright, impressive beams of color and white light.

Georgetown GLOW is funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities (DCCAH), an agency supported in party by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Deirdre Ehlen MacWilliams is a public art expert and curator whose projects have included Co-Curator of What’s Going On Shaw, DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities’ 5×5 program, Foggy Bottom Sculpture Biennial, and Arlington, VA, public art initiatives.

The Georgetown Business Improvement District (BID) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the accessibility, attractiveness and overall appeal of Georgetown. Established in 1999 by its property owners and merchants, the Georgetown BID has more than 1,000 members. The organization is located in the heart of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. and sets a standard of excellence in preserving historic charm while meeting contemporary needs. From marketing and special events, to transportation, economic development, destination management and streetscape, the Georgetown BID contributes to the vitality and quality of life in Georgetown. For more information, visit georgetowndc.com.